Friday 13 August 2010 07.12 EDT
First published on Friday 13 August 2010 07.12 EDT

There is light at the end of the tunnel for the batsmen of England and Pakistan, who for two matches have been in the unfamiliar situation of being subservient to bowlers. At Edgbaston in particular the movement in the air, not as pronounced as in the first Test at Trent Bridge, was exacerbated by a substandard pitch of indifferent bounce and variable pace. Unless Bill Gordon produces a little more of the sleight of hand he managed at The Oval last year, and Mick Hunt loses the plot at Lord's, the pitches for the final two Tests will be pristine, with overhead conditions the only real variable.

It is with this in mind that Geoff Miller and his co-selectors will choose their England squad for the third Test and if there are changes they will only reflect a concern over fitness or a return to fitness after injury, Stuart Broad having escaped by the skin of his teeth a match ban for his inappropriate throwing of the ball at Zulqarnain Haider during Pakistan's second innings last Sunday. England have, after all, just won successive matches by 354 runs and by nine wickets. Ian Bell, who could lay considerable claim to a batting place, is still hobbling so that line-up will remain unaltered, as will the bowling with the only change likely to be the return of Ajmal Shahzad to the squad in place of Tim Bresnan, who replaced him when his twisted ankle ballooned up.

Beyond the confines of the selectors themselves, however, the debate will continue about the form and performance of Alastair Cook. These are proving difficult times for him but, given the conditions in which he has had to operate, it is no surprise to see all openers struggling, too. And it definitely seems to be that when things go against you, they do so in spades. Thus, in the first innings at Edgbaston, Cook got out to a mistimed pull shot (a favourite and prolific scoring method) against a slow long hop, while in the second, the ball which massacred his stumps kept a little low and jagged back, although he might have had that covered better had he been forward as the length demanded.

By contrast Strauss, who in his previous 10 Test innings had been averaging fewer than any of the England batsmen over a similar period (Strauss did not go to Bangladesh), was dropped three times on his way to a second-innings half-century. That Cook needs to tighten his technique – largely a function of footwork which appears to have leapt from planting his front leg too early, to waiting too long so that bat arrives at the ball before footwork helps take it there – is evident: he is not properly synchronised.

However Andy Flower in particular allows him some slack while at the same time recognising that there is a limit to be reached beyond which it is counterproductive, both for the player and the team, for him to continue in the side and which further is discouraging to those with ambitions to get into the team. Flower, rightly, does not believe that point has been reached and recognises the underlying qualities Cook possesses. Strauss and Cook, with 3,183 runs scored together, are only 67 runs shy of overtaking Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe as England's most prolific opening pairing – and the sixth highest for any country – albeit from more than twice as many innings. The chance to get those is not going to disappear just yet.